Holy Empire of Britannia (The Sum of Our Choices)
The Holy Empire of Britannia is a superpower in Juubi-K's Code Geass ''fanfiction The Sum of Our Choices. Geography Home Territories The Empire's home territories, sometimes referred to as 'Britannia Proper' or 'the Homeland', consist of North and Central America, Hawaii, and Greenland, along with the entire Carribean region. All these territories were acquired before the introduction of the Area system. These territories are in turn divided along feudal lines, providing Britannia with a truly vast peerage. The largest of these are the Archduchies, though these are also known as States. As a result of their size and economic importance, they are governed by elected state legislatures in addition to their Archdukes and Archduchesses. This was insituted after the Rebellion of the Southern Lords (see below), to balance the power of the highest-ranking nobles. The Archuchies are in turn divided into Duchies, Marquessates, Margravates, Earldoms, Viscountcies, and Baronies. The size, population, and economic importance can vary considerably. For example, the Archduchy of California includes the Viscountcy of San Clemente, and the Archduchy of Ontario includes the Duchy of Ottowa. The Archduchy of Cuba and Hispaniola consists of the Carribean region in its entirety. Areas The Areas, otherwise known as the 'Colonies', consist of South America, New Zealand, Japan (August 2010 - January 2018 ATB), and portions of Africa. They consist of states conquered by Britannia, for the most part corresponding to their pre-conquest borders, though in some cases small states and other non-state entities are leashed together for bureaucratic convenience. Any land of interest to Britannia is declared a 'Concession' and placed under direct Britannian control, usually for the purposes of Settlement construction. Concessions made directly to the person of the Emperor, or the Imperial Family, are called 'Providences.' Territory not ceded in this fashion is administered by collaborationist governing bodies, though they are answerable to the Imperial Viceroy or Vicereine. Areas are divided into three categories; Correctional, Developing, and Satellite. An Area gains greater autonomy as it proceeds through these categories, though it may be demoted to Correctional in the case of a serious setback. The Areas are as follows: '''Area 1: Colombia' Area 2: Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana Area 3: Ecuador and Peru Area 4: Chile ''' '''Area 5: Bolivia and Paraguay Area 6: Brazil Area 7: Argentina and Uruguay Area 8: New Zealand ''' '''Area 9: The Phillipines Area 10: Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia Area 11: Japan (August 2010 to January 2018 ATB) Area 12:Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cote D'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin Area 13: South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland Area 14: Western Sahara, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso Area 15: Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon Area 16: Chad, Central African Republic Area 17: Algeria and Morocco Area 18: Libya and Tunisia Area 19: Namibia and Botswana Area 20: Angola and Zambia Area 21: Egypt (Note: In 'One and Only Son', Area 7 is actually the Kingdom of Krugis. In this case, Argentina and Uruguay were combined with Chile to create Area 4.) 'Major Cities and Settlements' The Empire's Capital is located at the city of Pendragon. The city was founded in 1876 ATB (1821 AD) by Emperor Ricardo after the destruction of his first Capital during the Slave Trade Contention. The Imperial Palace is located at the centre of the city, from which extends St Darwin Boulevard, to which the Palaces and Villas of the Imperial Consorts are connected. Pendragon is the Empire's political and administrative hub, as well as being the Capital in the symbolic sense, making control of it vital to the control of Britannia as a whole. The mountains surrounding the city are riddled with underground bunkers manned by combat units of the Imperial Guard. The administrative capital of Area 6 was Rio de Janeiro, much as the Towkyow Settlement was for Area 11, and was arranged in a similar fashion. It was destroyed by an EU cruise missile attack in 2018 ATB. History Age of Revolution As revolution broke out in France, Great Britain held to absolute monarchy under King Henry X. After his death in 1799, his eldest daughter Elizabeth took the throne as Elizabeth III. She was an effective administrator, and did much to improve Britain's financial situation. Her tight-fistedness did not make her popular, with the people or for that matter with the nobles. Realising that her Kingdom was in much the same position as France before the Revolution, Elizabeth took it upon herself to resolve one of the most glaring financial problems, namely that the nobles held much of the country's wealth yet paid no taxes. In her ultimatum to the Houses of Parliament, she described the nobles in the words of her ancestor, Henry VIII: "They are but half our subjects, yea, and scarce our subjects" As their French counterparts had done, the nobles resisted her decree that they should pay taxes proportionate to their wealth and incomes. This time, however, the Officer Corps of the army and navy did not join in, even though they were nobles also. They could not bring themselves to turn on their Queen in time of war, who was in any case backed by the war-fever of the London mob, whose passions she ruthlessly manipulated. The nobles capitulated, and Elizabeth finally had the money she needed. Unfortunately, her reforms would do her little good. Nelson's defeat at Trafalgar in 1803 AD left Napoleon in control of the seas, a situation he did his utmost to exploit. Attempts to rebuild the Royal Navy were scuppered by near-constant French raids on their shipyards, and in 1807 AD Napoleon landed on Britain's southern coast with a hundred thousand troops, and more waiting in France. Elizabeth acted quickly, ordering troops to be deployed to block his advance, and sending out the call for the Militia and Volunteers to assemble. Her troops were well trained and equipped, but let down by Generals promoted on status and wealth rather than ability. Upon recieving news of a serious defeat south of London, Elizabeth fled north with the treasury and her foot guards. Her flight caused great consternation among the ordinary people, who saw it as a sign of impending defeat. In an attempt to prove her resolve, Elizabeth left her foot guards at the city of Newcastle upon Tyne, proclaiming to the citizens that she would soon return for them "with two-hundred-thousand more." The gesture served its purpose, but would prove a terrible mistake. The Edinburgh Disgrace, and the Parting of the Ways Elizabeth set herself up at Edinburgh castle, intending to direct the assembly and training of the troops before heading south. News that Napoleon had become bogged down in Norfolk gave her hope. But she found Edinburgh incompetently administered, with food in short supply and the military logistics hopelessly disorganized. As word spread of their Queen's arrival, citizens of Edinburgh began to gather outside the castle, calling for bread and relief of their poverty. The gathering was peaceful at first, but the Edinburgh Revolutionary Council, as one of the local political clubs now called itself, started agitating among the crowds. When the leaders tried to calm things down, the Revolutionaries unleashed their rank-and-file, a mixture of criminals, destitute weavers, dispossesed highlanders, and other dregs of humanity they had snuck into the city over several weeks. Edinburgh was plunged into chaos, and Elizabeth found herself besieged in the castle, with supplies for only a few days and no way to call for help. The Revolutionaries attempted a bluff, persuading the despairing Queen that they were in control of the city, and that if she did not accede to their demands, then they would either storm the castle or leave its occupants to starve. Already unwell due to stress, Elizabeth gave in and signed the abidication, ending a dynasty that had reigned for over two-hundred years. Or so it seemed at the time. Bouyed by their unlikely victory, the Edinburgh Revolutionaries quickly sent word around the country, hoping to establish a revolutionary government as quickly as possible, and calling for the death of nobles and remaining members of the Royal family. Neither would happen. Many nobles were indeed caught and killed by revolutionary bands, but many more had already fled, heading for North America from wherever they could take ship. What was worse, the revolutionaries failed to kill the one member of the Royal family who could hope to succeed Elizabeth. That was Prince Michael, the Queen's youngest and favourite brother, currently holed-up at the Royal Family's Sandringham estate in Norfolk. The Edinburgh Revolutionaries were in a desperate situation. Far from rallying to their cause, the peoples of the British isles were for the most part reacting with dismay. There was widespread desire for reform, but not for revolution. The only exception was in Ireland, only for the revolt to be put down by pro-government troops. Indeed, this was what happened throughout the country, even in areas under French occupation. The discovery that Napoleon was not on their side was a terrible blow. The Revolutionary assembly fell into infighting, creating a chance for Duke Ricardo van Britannia to make his move. Ricardo infiltrated Edinburgh, accompanied by his loyal henchmen, a minor order of chivalry that called itself the Knights of the Round Table, whose leader was Sir Richard Hector. Such was the state of the city that Ricardo and his followers were able to rescue Elizabeth and her remaining followers from Edinburgh castle and spirit them away to the coast where they took ship for North America. The Assembly did not realise that she was gone until someone remembered to have food sent to the castle. The final nail in the coffin came a few months later, when Parliament acclaimed Prince Michael as King of Great Britain. It was never admitted, but widely understood, to have been at Napoleon's insistence. Britain was left broken and bankrupt, denuded of manpower and stripped of its military might. Napoleon had little interest in actually controlling Britain, and as such was content to let Michael and his Parliament run the country on his behalf. Unable to provide enough troops to be a worthwhile ally, Napoleon set limits on the size of Britain's armed forces, ensuring it could not threaten him. General Sir Arthur Wellesley managed to hold out in Portugal, but India found itself menaced by the Sikh Empire, under the leadership of the formidable Maharaja Ranjit Singh. With his French-trained army and Chinese financial support, he set about throwing the British out of India once and for all. Without troops, warships, or money, there was little Michael or his government could do about it. Singh went from victory to victory, his armies swelling as conquered Indian princes flocked to his banner, and in 1810 he captured Bengal, India's richest province. The war ended when Michael convinced Singh in a heartfelt letter to let him withdraw his subjects. With that, British power in India, and the world, was effectively broken. Elizabeth established a new capital at Henrytown, and set about establishing a government-in-exile. However her health worsened, and she grew increasingly reliant on Ricardo, now generally believed to have been her lover. When Elizabeth finally died on October 18th, 1813 AD, she named him as her successor, overturning centuries of tradition in a move that shocked all but surprised none. Ricardo secured his position by killing anyone he couldn't trust, but he could not prevent several of Elizabeth's blood relatives from fleeing on the fastest ships they could find. Their destination was Great Britain, where they flung themselves on Michael's mercy, begging him to protect them from Ricardo. But events had already taken a drastic turn. Napoleon had been defeated in a battle near Leipzig on the night of October 18th, the night Elizabeth died. Seeing it as a golden opportunity to be free of French domination, the German states turned on him along with Britain. Ricardo recieved word of this, but sent his ultimatum regardless. This was that Michael should surrender the crown immediately, or suffer the wrath of the true sovereign. Michael hated Ricardo personally, believing that he had manipulated his sister for his own profit, but balked at the thought of what Ricardo promised. a war that would split the english-speaking world and could well see Britain burn a second time. Days of cajoling by a deputation including the Prime Minister and the newly-returned Sir Arthur Wellesley, eventually convinced him that not to resist would spell a return to absolutism, and the undoing of all of Michael's reforms and good works. Further emboldened by the support of the public, Michael called Ricardo's bluff. Ricardo was humiliated, but he was in no position to do anything about it. His courtiers were enraged by this, and horrified by news of the social changes taking place in Britain. Few in number, and lacking in military strength, Ricardo's aristocratic followers were left with a terrible sense of vulnerability. They were constantly afraid, not merely of the ordinary colonists, or of the countless African slaves they owned, but that the armies of Europe would one day appear on the horizon with murder in mind. Ricardo unsettled them even further by unveiling a Constitution, with much of its content plagiarized from the articles promulgated by the American revolutionaries a generation earlier. This helped to calm unrest among the colonists, many of whom were unhappy with the influx of nobles, but left many of his followers fearing that they had escaped one revolution only to face another. Ricardo had the perfect means to distract them. Expansion and Conflict In January 1814 AD, Ricardo van Britannia was crowned Emperor Ricardo I, 90th Emperor of the Holy Empire of Britannia. His reign was backdated to the death of Elizabeth III the previous year, and his dynasty backdated to the legendary King Eowyn, who was said to have thrown back Julius Caesar's invasion of ancient Britannia in 55 BC. In addition to his new Imperial Constitution, Ricardo also unveiled a new Imperial Calendar, which used the year 55 BC as its epoch. Thus the year 1813 AD, when his reign officially began, became the year 1868 Ascension Throne Britannia, or ATB. Not long after the coronation, Ricardo publically proclaimed his intention, which was nothing less than the conquest of the whole of North America. He dazzled noble and colonist alike with tales of the riches that awaited them, of vast swathes of fertile land, rich in raw materials, all waiting to be exploited. There would be no class war, no diseased or starving peasants, no sans-cullottes rioting in the streets, for there would be plenty for all. The nobles as a class were hooked, yearning to regain the wealth and privilege they had once known. The colonists too were taken in, dreaming of the prosperity that awaited them in the new land. Britannia's destiny would be war and conquest. By 1876 ATB (1821 AD), the whole of the French Louisiana territories were under Britannian control, the colonists too few to put up much resistance. Ricardo, to the surprise of many, made the vanquished an offer they couldn't refuse. They could either join him, and be embraced into the fold as so-called Honourary Britannians, ''or they could be killed. The majority accepted, and the Louisiana territories were incorporated into the Empire, causing it to more than double in size. What was more, the incorporation of the new Honourary Britannians helped to ease Britannia's acute manpower shortage. The most shocking aspect of this arrangement was that the offer was extended not only to the French colonists, but to their native allies as well. Ricardo justified this as part of a divide-and-conquer strategy, which proved highly effective. He used the same method on Henri Christophe, King of North Haiti, who became the first Archduke of Cuba and Hispaniola. These expansions proved highly profitable, but brought Britannia to the borders of Mexico, which gained its independence in that same year. Ricardo had every intention of continuing, but was held back by the same manpower shortages that necessitated the Honourary Britannian system. The development of the new territories required vast numbers of people, and military recruitment was cutting into the existing workforce. The only workable answer was slavery, which had long been practiced in North America. Britannian aristocrats purchased vast numbers of slaves via the existing trade, importing them from Africa (and wherever else they could be found) in return for raw materials such as cotton, which fuelled the Industrial Revolution spreading across Europe. The lure of profit outweighed any percieved irony in trading with a continent that had thrown them out. However there was a sudden complication. Napoleon had been defeated at Waterloo in 1876 ATB (1821 AD), only to die on the way back to France, reputedly of poisoning. But the ideas that he represented lived on, in a Europe brought together in peace by the new Congress of Europe (established to ensure that such a thing would never happen again). Support for the emancipation of slaves and an end to the slave trade was growing all the time, and Britain was leading the way. In that same year, buoyed by victory, King Michael gave his support to William Wilberforce's abolitionists, and a Bill for the abolition of slavery and the slave trade in all British territories and possessions was passed. Enraged and terrified 'plantocrats' fled to Britannia, and went so far as to ask Emperor Ricardo to invade the British-held Carribbean islands and restore their 'property'. Ricardo was of a mind to oblige, not because he cared for the institution of slavery in itself, but because he needed the manpower. The conflict would be known to history as the Slave Trade Contention. Sure enough, his forces invaded Jamaica that same year, capturing it only after fierce resistance and heavy losses. This caused great anger among the British public, and the armed forces were enraged by reports of British prisoners being killed in the Port Antonio Massacre. Parliament responded by ordering the deployment of the newly-rebuilt Royal Navy to blockade the coast of Africa, cutting off the slave trade at its source. Ricardo, egged on by the nobles, dispatched the Imperial Navy's High Seas Fleet to break the blockade. With the help of their new steamships, the British destroyed the Britannian fleet at the Battle of Cape Verde. Not long afterwards, in a move that was part experiment, part pyschological warfare, a mixed force of Royal Marines and Riflemen landed on Britannia's east coast, fought their way the few miles inland to Henrytown, then looted and burned it to the ground before escaping. These humiliations inflamed the fear and hatred felt by so many Britannians, who believed once again that the whole world was out to get them. Their response was to treat any non-Britannian they could find with appalling brutality, culminating in the Rape of Mexico City, which shocked even Britannia. But no amount of brutality could bring victory over people determined to resist. Britannia discovered this to its cost when it attempted to advance into Colombia, only to be thrown back by the armies of Simon Bolivar. But the defeat was in some respects a blessing in disguise, for it showed Ricardo that the new age was to be an age of technology. Ricardo began to embrace not only nobles, but thinkers, entrepreneurs, and inventors. He opened Britannia's shores and opportunities to those who had ideas, to those who wanted to better themsevles, but could not do so. His call was soon answered. Many of them were European industrialists, frustrated by a continent in which the wellbeing of workers mattered more than profit. Thinkers and inventors came too, lured by wealth and titles. But even they were outnumbered by the countless ordinary immigrants, seeking new lives and opportunities unavailable in Europe. A new Britannia was coming into being, a Britannia of science and industry, a Britannia that advanced ever onward to a better future. Only a few could see the seeds of conflict being sown. More interesting to contemporaries was the news that a certain Michael Faraday had, in 1875 ATB (1820 AD) constructed an electric motor, with the electric current being transmitted via a substance that was widely known, but little understood. The substance was called Sakuradite. The North-South War The opening-up of Britannia to new kinds of people invariably led to conflict with those who were already there. Many nobles felt threatened by new industry that was developing in Britannia, even if many of the big names behind it were themselves nobles. The Ashford family in particular made a name for itself, astounding the common people with their inventions and delighting their fellow nobles with spectacular parties. The Bruckner and Rozen families rose in a similar fashion, and these three would go on in time to become the three principle noble families of the Empire. The newcomers found themselves most welcome in the northern Archduchies, while the southern Archduchies retained an agrarian culture based on slavery. The issue of slavery had always been contentious, with many Britannians fearing that if blacks could be enslaved, then it was a slippery slope that led to whites being enslaved. Emperor Ricardo never resolved it in his lifetime, relying instead on the seigneural principle. Nobles who wanted slaves could buy them, those who didn't want slaves didn't have to. Abolitionism quickly spread in the industrialised north, though it could be based on sharply contrasting precepts. Most of the abolitionists opposed slavery on moral or humane grounds, but others did so because they considered it unhealthy and improper. Taking their cue from the Stoic philosophers, they came to believe that slavery weakened those who practiced it, giving them an unhealthy sense of entitlement and rendering them unable to manage their own lives. The publishing of Charles Darwin's ''The Origin of Species in 1913 ATB (1859 AD) provided further inspiration with the new doctrine of Social Darwinism. Based on a misreading of Darwin's concept of natural selection, Social Darwinism's creed was survival of the fittest. ''The meaning of life was to succeed, to conquer, to dominate others, for this was the only way to survive. Chattel slavery was dangerous, not only because it denied the slaves the chance to prove themselves, and thus better the whole Empire with their works, but also because it allowed the unfit to rise on the labours of others. The ideology of the southern slaveholders was very different, being based on the belief that every white person was a beloved child of God, created by God in his own image, and that his dominion over the black race was the will of God. Perversely, the slaveholders regarded the northern ideology as cruel and uncaring, denying the basic rights and dignities afforded to white people by divine favour. The stage was set for conflict. Matters came to a head in 1915 ATB (1860 AD), with the ascession of Lothar el Britannia to the throne as 91st Emperor. He selected the gifted orator and known abolitionist Abraham Lincoln as his Chancellor, which was in itself a sign of things to come. His first official act as Emperor was to formally outlaw the importation of persons for slavery, that is, to make it illegal to bring slaves into the Empire. This had been a rare and covert practice since the Slave Trade Contention, but it was enough to arouse the passions of the southern slaveholders. Believing, with some justification, that Lothar intended to abolish slavery once and for all, they chose to take up arms in defence of the institution on which their wealth and way of life were inextricably based. By April 1916 ATB (1861 AD), the Archdukes of South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee, had signed a solemn pact to resist the Emperor and his 'evil works'. The Rebellion of the Southern Lords, also called the North-South War, had begun. At the start, the war seemed as much a forgone conclusion as it would afterwards. The Imperial forces for the most part remained obedient to their Emperor, those officers sympathetic to the Southern cause having already resigned their commissions. The loyal northern Archduchies were not only wealthier, more industrialized, and more populous, with superior infrastructure including a more extensive railway network, but they were joined by the Archduchy of Mexico, leaving the rebels surrounded on three sides. However, the Imperial army was concentrated in Mexico for a planned thrust into South America, intended to take advantage of the War of the Alliances currently raging in Europe. What was more, the rebellious Archdukes had hitherto been raising volunteer units for this cause, furnishing them with officers personally loyal to themselves. A further factor was technology. The Archduke of Virginia, Augustus Fauntroy, had been quietly experimenting with a new weapon that had appeared in Europe, the Prussian ''Dreyse breech-loading rifle. It had been around for some time, and had the concept had been considered by the Imperial Army, but not until recently. Fauntroy's own researchers had advanced in leaps and bounds over many years, creating a new rifle that was superior to the Dreyse in all respects. They also developed a conversion kit, which could be used to turn existing percussion-cap rifled muskets into breech-loaders. Needless to say Fauntroy kept his stocks of the new rifle, dubbed the Tredegar, ''for his own troops, distributing the conversion kits in secret to his new allies in the run-up to the rebellion. When the Archdukes formally declared their intentions, Lothar found himself faced not only with a large and well-trained army, but one armed with weapons that not only offered a faster rate of fire, but could out-range his field artillery. Though the Imperial Army quickly figured out what had happened, and current weapons projects were sped up, they could not prevent a number of painful defeats by southern forces. The rebellion would drag on for four long years, forcing the invasion plans to be put on hold indefinately. The Imperial Navy maintained a successful blockade of the rebellious archduchies throughout the war, threatened from time to time by improvised submarines, a weapon known to be in use by the European powers, but one that the Imperial Navy had not seen fit to employ itself. This arrogance was finally shaken by the Battle of Hampton Roads, in which a new Rebel warship sank three Imperial warships and was only stopped when the Imperial Navy deployed its own newest warship. Despite the Rebels' best efforts, the Imperials gradually adapted, producing weapons equal and then superior to their own. The Imperial Army began the war with percussion-cap rifled muskets, bronze field guns, and lances. It ended the war with bolt-action rifles, machine guns, howitzers, early tanks, and even primitive aircraft. The latter were the product of the north's answer to Archduke Fauntroy, the eccentric inventor Marmaduke Asplund. When the new technology was combined with the north's innate advantages, and the economic strangulation of the blockade, the end became a matter of time. The rebel armies were destroyed one by one, their cities burned, every last rebel soldier hunted down, conventional resistance being finally broken in 1920 ATB (1865 AD). Captured rebel officers were paraded through the streets in chains, often being made to kneel and watch as the Imperial banner was raised over the towns, cities, and fortresses they had tried to defend. To add further humiliation, they were similarly made to watch as newly-freed slaves were granted their freedom and citizenship, often with great ceremony. Determined that this should never happen again, Emperor Lothar ordered massive overhauls of Britannia's administrative structures, as well as those of the armed forces. He established the principle that all efforts must be made in future to ensure that Britannia had access to the latest military technology. He also determined that the Archdukes must never again be in a position to raise rebellion against the Imperial throne, not his own nor that of his successors. For the prevention of rebellion he established the Office of Special Intelligence, or O.S.I., answering only to the Crown. He also limited the power of the Archdukes by establishing state legislatures alongside them, their members to be elected by the people, and which from hence would provide each Archduchy with its Senators. With the war over, and half million dead, no one was in any position to defy him. Indeed, so terrible was its memory, that nothing like the North-South War would happen again for a century or more. The last casualty of the North-South war was Emperor Lothar himself. His previously loyal Archdukes, irritated by his reforms, had the Emperor and Chancellor Lincoln assassinated during a command performance of the opera Romulus Augustus. Their deaths robbed Britannia of one of the most effective Emperor-Chancellor teams in its history, condemning it to a decade of palace strife as other members of the Imperial family struggled for control. Britannia saw two more Emperors in the space of ten years, before the ascession of Emperor Theseus le Britannia, 94th Emperor, in 1930 ATB (1875 AD). War of the World The North-South war did not rid Britannia's people of their destructive impulses, though they became leery of turning those impulses on one-another. Emperor Theseus I, 94th Emperor, proved himself a resourceful ruler, able to retain the throne and accomplish his goals in the face of opposition at every turn. A historian by vocation, he understood enough of Britannia's nature to know that the peace could not last. Decades of fear and resentment had created a nation bred for war and conquest, without which it would turn upon itself and be destroyed. A new target for Britannia's rage was needed, and Theseus knew where it would be found. To Britannia's south lay the continent of South America, which had freed itself from European control even as Britannia was coming into existence. Britannia's first attempt to conquer it had been thwarted by force, the second by civil war. This had allowed the nations of South America to rise and develop, pursuing their own ambitions. The largest and strongest by far was the Empire of Brazil, so much so that it fancied itself Britannia's rival in the western hemisphere. Following the European path of constitutional monarchy and democratic government, Brazil could not have been more different from Britannia. Which made it the perfect target. Theseus took the lead, laying plans for a full-scale invasion and conquest of South America. Taking advantage of the reforms made by Emperor Lothar before his death, Theseus oversaw the revitalizing of Britannia's military industry and organisation. His navy was equipped with battleships every bit as advanced as those of the European powers, along with several of the new aircraft carriers. His air force was large and well-equipped with aircraft of all types. His army was regarded as one of the best in the world. Thus, taking advantage of divisions within the European League, and the not-entirely-coincidental invasion of China by Brazil's ally, the Empire of Japan, Britannia began its invasion of South America. It is unlikely that anyone in Britannia could have foreseen what would follow. Decline and Resurrection Conquest Instability Notable Events The Slave-Trade Contention A war fought over an ideal, at least on the surface. The decision of the British Parliament to abolish both the keeping and trading of slaves in (1821 AD) was unusual in that it was largely a ''moral ''issue, driven by public opinion, rather than one of pure statecraft. From the latter perspective, the decision was insanity. Though Britannia had established a strong position in the Carribbean, especially after the capture of Cuba and Hispaniola, British possessions such as Jamaica were not only intact, but insanely profitable. To view it as economic warfare would be premature, for the abolition merely meant Britain's abdication of its role in the Atlantic slave trade, not the outright blockade that would come later. Either way, that Britannia would react badly was no great surprise at the time or afterwards. Britannia's rapid expansion across North America required a significant expansion of Britannia's slave population, and the British abolition would force Britannia to source the slaves themselves. While not quite the economic disaster contemporary Britannian commentators made it out to be, this was nonetheless disruptive. Britannia's response was to invade the British-held islands. Following the doctrine it had developed during the first expansions, focussing on speed and aggression without restraint, Britannia's campaign was short and brutal, securing Jamaica in september of 1821 after only a few weeks of hard fighting. This brief war would set the tone for Britannia's future expansions, as would subsequent events in the Jamaican town of Port Antonio. With the securing of British-held islands, large numbers of black soldiers from the British army's West Indies regiments fell into Britannian hands. Ricardo's policy was that black soldiers found in uniform were to be treated as prisoners of war. However, a great many of his officers disapproved of such restraint, including a certain General the Lord Arminius Bradley. A staunch opponent of emancipation, Bradley equated the arming and training of blacks, even as uniformed soldiers, with the formenting of slave rebellion, the darkest fear of the Britannian aristocracy. When he found himself in charge of hundreds of black soldiers and their white officers, he gave each an ultimatum. The white officers could swear allegience to Emperor Ricardo and become Britannians, or else be shot as rabble-rousers. The enlisted men could either submit and be returned to servitude (whereupon Bradley intended to sell them for his own profit) or suffer the same fate. Both officers and men refused, and were promptly massacred on an apoplectic Bradley's orders. Bradley later had the bodies buried in an attempt to conceal the crime, but one of his own officers reported him to Sir Richard Hector, who in turn reported him to the Emperor. Bradley would pay a high price for his disobedience, losing his military rank, his titles, and his standing in Britannian society. The Bradley family would not return to grace for nearly two centuries, when his descendant, Luciano Bradley, was admitted to the Round Table as the Knight of Ten. The massacre caused outrage all over Europe. It was said that King Michael wept upon hearing the news, distraught that so many men would die rather than renounce him. The British government, seeing that retaking the islands would be impossible, decided to hit Britannia where it would truly hurt. Riding the tide of public opinion, Parliament voted to take the abolition of the slave trade one step further, to blockade the west coast of Africa and halt it altogether. Slave traders were to be regarded as pirates, and Captains were to use their discretion. It was, in effect, a license for all-out war on the high seas. Knowing they could not hope to stop every slave ship, the Royal Navy sought to achieve their goals by terror and example. So feared was the Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron that slavers often dumped their human cargoes at first sight of a British warship. Slavers seen doing so would recieve no mercy, and the supply of slaves soon dried up as erstwhile traffickers sought less dangerous business. Britannia was already on the move. Upon hearing word of the blockade, Ricardo's first act was to deploy the High Seas fleet of his new Imperial Navy. Their mission; to clear the blockade and establish a permanent presence in West Africa. The fleet was led by Admiral Jehan Ducquesne, 1st Duke of Boston, aboard his flagship, the 112-gun First-Rate ''Great Britannia. His immediate destination was the archipeligo of Cape Verde, with a view to establishing a forward base there. Little did he know that the Royal Navy would be waiting for him, using weapons neither he nor his officers had ever seen before. In addition to the West Africa Squadron, the British had deployed a battle fleet to Cape Verde for just such an eventuality, a fleet made up entirely of steamships. Steamships had been first unveiled in 1868 ATB (1813 AD), the product of a development project by a certain Robert Fulton, started by Elizabeth III and continued by Michael in secret. The ships at Gibraltar were of a new type, capable of travelling long distances. The instinctively-conservative Royal Navy had embraced steamships as a means of regaining its preeminence, and it was only the launching of the experimental ironclad HMS Hephaestus in 1876 ATB (1821 AD), complete with experimental revolving gun turret, that finally got them worried. However, the Admiral chosen to command the fleet was none other than Thomas Cochrane, having been lured home from Chile by King Michael. Amused by the reactions of his fellow Admirals, Cochrane chose Hephaestus for his flagship. On July 3rd 1877 ATB (1822 AD), as the Britannian fleet approached, Cochrane concealed his ships behind the islands of Cape Verde. The smoke columns that might have given his steamships away were dispersed with improvised smoke arresters, then blown away by the same eastward wind that brought the Britannians closer. This same factor also convinced Ducquesne that there was no danger, for he knew of no way that ships could approach him against the wind. Experience and intuition told him that he was in a strong position. The wily Cochrane soon proved him wrong, ambushing the unsuspecting Britannians in two columns, one to their front, one to their rear. Able to manoeuvre regardless of the wind, the British steamships ran rings around the Britannian men'o'war, making best use of their limited firepower. Admiral Ducquesne would never answer for his failure, as the Great Britannia exploded under him, his death inducing the surviving Britannian ships to surrender. Of twenty-four Britannian ships-of-the-line, eleven were sunk and eight surrendered, the remainder managing to break off and escape. Of Cochrane's eighteen steamships, nine suffered significant damage and none were lost. Cochrane's only complaint was that the revolving turret on Hephaestus had jammed several times. The battle was a terrible humiliation for Britannia. Not only had the Imperial Navy's first major sea battle been a major defeat, but the supply of slaves had been decisively choked off. What was more, the The result was an outpouring of rage and xenophobia, with many Britannians fearing that this was a prelude to their destruction. They took their fury out on the unfortunate Mexicans, whose country they were in the process of conquering, culminating in the Rape of Mexico City. The cloud that was the Slave Trade Contention nonetheless had a silver lining, for it awakened in Emperor Ricardo an interest in technology. Determined that Britannia should never be caught off-guard in such a fashion again, he positively hurled money at scientists, thinkers, and inventors, egging them on to come up with new technologies, especially those related to war. The Rape of Mexico City The Clash of the Dreadnaughts In the later years of Emperor Ricardo's reign, Britannia fell victim to victory disease. Britannians came to believe that they inhabited an inherently superior society (despite all evidence to the contrary), to the point where they saw no need to keep up with technological developments elsewhere. This arrogance cost Britannia dear, and might have cost far worse if the Rebels had managed to build more than one of what the new warship they unveiled on March 8th 1917 ATB (1862 AD). The Virginia was yet another of Fauntroy's creations, an all-steel warship equipped with a revolutionary steam-turbine drive and sakuradite-based dynamo, what Europeans called a Dreadnaught. The solid sakuradite used in the dynamo and wiring meant that the Virginia ''could get by on a smaller and less powerful turbine than would otherwise be necessary, saving vital space and weight. This allowed the application of heavier armour, along with larger and more powerful guns. The Virginia was a living nightmare, sinking three Imperial warships on its first sortie for only minimal damage in return. The Battle of Hampton Roads would be remembered with shame and loathing in the Imperial Navy. Upon hearing of this development, Emperor Lothar ordered the deployment of the IBS ''Monitor, a newly-constructed warship of the same variety, even though it had barely finished being fitted out. The next day, the pair duelled off the coast, in a battle that would capture the imagination of a continent. The battle lasted over six hours, until Monitor scored a hit through Virginia's think deck armour, causing her to blow up. The Slaying of House Braganza The Emblem of Blood The Invasion of Japan The Martyrdom of Princess Euphemia Government Demographics Military Diplomatic Relations